Bugs & the I, Me, My Perspective in Second Life

Let us address the whole “center of the universe” debate. I’ve resisted for a long time the notion that everything is always all about me. However, I’ve decided that there are times I should reconsider my stance, say “screw it” and insist that my issues deserve attention.

I’m not suggesting that my perspective always be seen as the most valid. For example, today is Canada Day↑ even though Americans continue to celebrate it on the 4th (I suspect it has something to do with their inability to embrace the metric system). I’m an adult and I can let this confusion on their part go unchallenged.

But, when I want to take a photograph and My result is garbage because of a bug↑ then dammit I want somebody to pay attention to Me. I have enough trouble producing a result I don’t hate, leaving broken functionality for such an extended period of time is just unacceptable. Particularly since it keeps getting worse.

It used to be that I would experience the tiling bug when I took an exceptionally large photo. Lately even ones the size I typically use for this blog require post-processing to remove unwanted lines. I don’t consider a 1600 x 1200 photograph particularly large or unusual and until recently they didn’t come with this type of unwanted edit.

I tried to dodge this problem by trying a new viewer. There are people like Crap↑ who seem to change viewers with the frequency others change their socks. I’m not one of them. I had heard great things about Niran’s Viewer↑ and how photographers love it so I gave it a try.

The graphics are great and the wonderful thing is the number of buttons and sliders you can play with when capturing images. I have barely touched any of them so far but I see great potential.

It even seems to deal with my major issue regarding the changes to environment settings↑ that did not take photographers into consideration. I was so mad at those changes I actually created a JIRA. At first I felt pretty good about it and there were lots of comments so I didn’t feel like a complete ass. Then I got a message that a Linden was closing it because there were too many suggestions. My reaction to that borrowed from the American lexicon ….. “huh?”.

Anyway, back to the current issue. I was feeling very happy with the new viewer’s ability to take photos until I specified “high resolution” and got this.

So much for this solution. It happens that a few times a month I have to take very large photos for magazines – it’s very time consuming to have to fix the problem before submitting them and I don’t see why it should be necessary. This isn’t some exotic functionality that’s being tested. The tiling bug is just that – a bug. Instead of being fixed it’s getting worse and I’ve run out of patience.

I honestly try to be low maintenance but I’m pissed and I think it’s time one of those ridiculously smart techie geeks got their act together and made this standard functionality actually function.

I’m happy that performance is being addressed↑. I’m happy for anything that improves our Second Lives. However, I want my issue addressed now. The type of response I got last time (This ticket is unactionable because there are so many requests embedded throughout the comments, so I’m closing it as “Won’t Finish”) was offensive and I won’t back down this time.

I admit the whole JIRA thing is a mystery – I actually think it’s a game of some sort and as usual I don’t know the rules. But this↑ (if it’s the right one and who knows) is actually assigned and seems to be moving in the wrong direction. Surely that means that some techie is losing points right?

I finished taking photos at Wanderstill↑ at low rez. This did not make me happy and the build deserves much better. I might try taking very large photos at the low setting and then reducing them while increasing the pixel density. Maybe that will compensate somehow. But I shouldn’t have to do that.

I realize we’re “just photographers”. I guess that isn’t terribly important in the scheme of things but it’s like being the ugly stepchild.

For once I’m saying that what I want matters. I am trying to take a photograph, it is me adjusting settings and composition and me doing the clicking so yes, in this case, it’s all about me. I’m not the only one either.

16 Comments

Happy Canada Day Honour; the 145th one to boot too since the original date of confederation, or if you go by way of the Canada Act of 1982 then I guess Canada is only 30 years old! What ever age you celebrate; Happy Birthday Canada!

Serene Fairey

Yeah!!! (What she said.) I take Huuuuuuuge photos, clean the little lines a bit where they’re obvious, and then resample the image size down smaller to help hide any booboos. Taking the huge pics ruins how depth of field looks. and Happy Canada Day to the neighbors :D

NiranV Dean

simply using Deferred and its FXAA would extremly reduce those razor tooth edges.
as those pics impressively proof
NOTE: I did not use any tricks to make those pics , those are plain unedited snapshots directly from Second Life , taken in normal 1920 x 1050 (SL Window Resolution)
TIP: Use deferred to blur edges at long distances minimally that makes them look more smooth , also select the right preset , usually going darker in lighting increases smoothness

I voted for the JIRA you listed though I haven’t tried the bug yet. Maybe they’ll look at it closely since I didn’t file it. In six years I’ve never “won” a JIRA and even had some closed by other residents who called me stupid and told me to stop wasting my time. Recently I filed another but I don’t hold out any hopes. In my opinion the JiRA is a child’s pacifier: It calms us for a bit until we forget our problems then they take it away.

I’m convinced JIRA is a game and we’re the game pieces so it’s no wonder we can’t win. As for the JIRA police, those self appointed all-knowing residents – well if they’re so smart (fill in the blank, I’m Canadian and have to be polite). I voted for yours as well. :) *hugs*